Archery: Thumbring?

[ratty]

The few times I have tried to shoot with a thumb ring I was using a version of the ring on the far right. It's a small world.

I suspect there are many places to learn or practice horse archery in the UK. I live in York and use a stable near Goole, 45 minutes away. They allowed me to develop the whole Roman cavalry side of Comitatus. I knew how to shoot, but needed to transfer that to the back of a horse. Later riders will stand in the stirrups to help counter act the movement of the horse. Roman riders don't have the stirrups. But the draw action does make you sit upright. In some ways the faster the horse is moving the smoother it's action, and so taking aim is easier.

I think Maurice wrote that horse archery is a matter of practice not skill. After a while you kind off feel the motion of the horse and know when things are just right to take the shoot. I can't really describe what it's like. Some re-enactors just blast up and down taking one shot on each pass. But I think you need to be able to demonstrate the cantabrian circle. So you ride with the wrong hand, the right, while holding the arrow under tension on the string in the left hand. You get the horse up to a decent speed before turning him to the right. Then you make sure the horse is balanced, drop the reins, take the shot, collect the reins with your right hand and put the horse into another right hand turn. As yet I cannot "reload" on the move. I suspect that task would be easier with an eastern style of draw and stirrups.

The horse needs to be used to all of this. It took my poor old mount Murph a while to learn what we were doing. During the closed season the knowledge will be lurking at the back of his thick skull somewhere, waiting for the spring. And there is a new pony in the yard that I want to teach, when he stops bouncing up and down.

I fully recommend you give this a go. There are few better feelings than a clean shot from a horse on a sunny day in front of the public.

excellent that sounds amazing, thankyou for sharing. 8)

im looking into horse riding lessons, should i tell them what i want to do straight away, or must i go through like a beginners coarse the same as archery, that may possibly hinder what i want to do rather than help

any advice?